Former Steelhead forward passes away

(Boise, ID) ? With sadness, the Idaho Steelheads learned Wednesday morning that Barry Potomski died suddenly on Tuesday. The former Steelhead forward was 38 years old. He had recently returned to his hometown of Windsor, Ontario, at the time of his passing. He also ran a landscaping business in Las Vegas, where he had become active in youth hockey. Jeremy Mylymok, whose jersey number is retired at Qwest Arena, just saw Potomski at a youth hockey tournament in Las Vegas in February. The two were teammates with the Steelheads. ?He was such a great teammate, a great guy,? Mylymok said of his former teammate. ?I really looked up to him. He always had time for his teammates off the ice and always had our backs on the ice.? Potomski appeared in 32 regular-season games for the Steelheads during the 2000-2001 season, netting ten goals and adding seven assists. He then skated in ten playoff games, helping the Steelheads reach their first-ever WCHL Taylor Cup championship series. He was selected as the team?s playoff MVP for that postseason run, which ended in a seven-game loss in the Taylor Cup finals to the San Diego Gulls. That was his final season in professional hockey, a career that began in 1992 and included 68 games in the National Hockey League with the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks. ?Terrible news,? Steelheads president Eric Trapp said. ?He was a good man and the organization is very sad to learn of his passing.? He racked up 197 penalty minutes during his tenure with the Kings, where he played alongside NHL Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky and Jeff Shevalier, who he later teamed with in Idaho.